Karl Eberhard Schöngarth (22 April 1903 – 16 May 1946) was a German SS officer during the Nazi era. He was a war criminal who perpetrated mass murder and genocide in German-occupied Poland during the Holocaust; he participated in the January 1942 Wannsee Conference, at which the genocidal Final Solution to the Jewish Question was originally planned. After the war, Schöngarth and six others were tried for murdering a downed American pilot, Americo S. Galle, in 1944. They were all found guilty. Five of them, including Schöngarth, were sentenced to death. They were all executed in 1946.
Early life
Karl Georg Schöngarth was born on 22 April 1903 in Leipzig, Germany. His father was a master brewer. Schöngarth began high school at the age of 11, but soon dropped out in order to work at a garden center to support the war effort. On 7 March 1918 Schöngarth was awarded a “Young Men's Iron Medal”. After the war, he was to go back to high school to complete his education, but instead joined a Freikorps paramilitary group in Thuringia. This eventually led to Schöngarth joining a local Nazi group in Erfurt on November 1923, as he felt the organization agreed with his ethno-nationalistic tendencies. Schöngarth fled to Coburg to try to escape from his crime of treason, but eventually came back to Erfurt and was given amnesty. In 1924 Schöngarth finished his high school education and got a job at the Deutsche bank while also joining the Army Infantry Regiment 1/15 in Gießen.
Karl Eberhard Schöngarth later joined the SA (Sturmabteilung) as member number 43,870 while claiming expulsion from the army. By 1924, Schöngarth's involvement with the Nazi Party had decreased, and he enrolled at the University of Leipzig, majoring in economics and law. He completed his first bar exam in 1928 and landed a job in the Naumburg Superior Courts. He then went on to acquire his doctorate in law from the Institute for Labor and Law, on 28 June 1929 at the age of 26, and was awarded a Cum Laude. His thesis was on the subject of "the refusal of notices of termination of employment contracts". He then decided to take his second bar exam in December 1933 and became a court official for Magdeburg, Erfurt and Torgau. Eberhard married Dorothea Gross, with whom he had two sons.
SS career
After becoming a court official, Schöngarth began involving himself more heavily in the Nazi Party. On 1 February 1933 he joined the SS (member No°. 67,174 and Nazi N°. 2,848,857). Because party membership was now crucial for getting a government job in Germany, his involvement allowed him to become a postmaster in Erfurt. In 1933 he became a member of the SD, the SS's own intelligence service. He eventually left his postmaster position on 1 November 1935, and joined the Gestapo. During his time working with the Gestapo, he worked in the main press office, the political-church council, and the Arnsberg district office in Dortmund, he also served as police chief in Münster and was named a government counselor. Though unknown why he found employment at the political church, a letter from Reinhard Heydrich to the Reich Ministry of the Interior recommended Eberhard become a part of the Secret State Police due to his broad and insightful law background. He was placed with the Gestapo, and later with the SS. He also rose in ranks in the SS, becoming a first lieutenant, captain, major and lieutenant colonel in 1939, and from colonel to brigadier general in 1940.
War crimes
During the German attack on Poland he was promoted to SS Obersturmbannführer. He later served as a Senior Inspector for the Reich Security Main Office in Dresden.